Tag Archive: Landfill Art Project

After I had primed my hubcap from the Landfill Art Project, I began the background painting: I painted the lettering with a bright red field around the Pontiac logo. For years I had seen Pontiac logos shown in red with white lettering, so I wanted to carry on the tradition. The walls supporting the sides became a sky blue color. A layer of cream yellow paint was then sponged on the wide brimmed base. I then added a few more layers of varying earth tones to mimic the sandstone rocks-(Once upon a time, I had done many pieces of faux finished furniture, and had gotten pretty good at stone work). The details showing mesas and clouds were brushed in, followed by the black detailing that transplanted the antelopes and the rock art Indians into their selected spots. I was getting closer to my vision…

Frick, one of the residents of the Funky Flamingo Studio supervising the painting of the hub cap

I have been working on my Batik paintings all summer, and decided it was time to take a creative break. About three months ago I received a request from artist Ken Marquis to participate in the Landfill Art Project http://www.landfillart.org/. He is seeking artists from all fifty states and around the world to paint hubcaps that he has recycled from landfills. I looked at his gallery of images and thought that I would take on the challenge of painting a hubcap. I’ve always been a scrounger, recycler( my parents were very strong into the depression mantra of waste-not, want not ). When I was a kid, my brother and I would go to the annual community trash pick-up day and assemble bicycles cannibalized from the ones that had been dumped, so the idea was really appealing to me.

A few weeks later, I received in the mail a heavy metal Pontiac hubcap to paint. My guess is that is is circa 1960’s to late 1970’s vintage–The metal was very strong and heavy. I had to let it sit for a while until an idea spoke to me: Seeing that was originally named after Indian Chief Pontiac, why not do something with an Indian theme? I happened to be dusting a favorite curio that I had purchased years ago at the Four Corners State Park in Arizona that showed images of antelope racing across sandstone in the ancient Mimbres pottery style. I looked at a book of photographs of petrographic paintings, and found images of hunters racing across the stones that I would adapt to my concept. With these ideas in mind, I began my adventure.